January 2, 2007

Grinding Away

"Good morning! Happy New Year! Let's start by taking out your planners and noting some important upcoming dates. If you haven't written this down already, we have no school on January 15. That's important. It's Martin Luther King Day. Remember? Okay. The next day will be somewhat normal, but don't forget that there will be a community service log check that day. I don't know who is checking it, or how many hours you should have. I'm just passing on the message. Oh! Mr. Math Teacher is the sucker teacher in charge on that? Excellent. Two of you You all know what's going on.

The end of the quarter is drawing near, and in fact, you will be taking final exams January 17-19. Mark that on your planners. Yes, it's true. We are on minimum day schedule, but you DO have long hard-ass, brain-frying exams each morning. That extra time each day is for you to study and for me to grade your exams on the commons stairwell. And then, also mark this on your calendars, the first week of February we will be taking the writing exam. What writing exam? You know the one that proves to everyone how smart you are,and if you don't do well, our chances of meeting AYP this year will be all your fault.

Shall we get started then? Excellent!"

It wasn't so bad today. Pretty typical.

My laptop, which I needed to use with my LCD projector was not cooperating with me. During one class it completely shut down from exhaustion despite the fact it was charged and plugged in. During another class, it refused to connect to the website we were using. Bleah. Whatever. The students could just listen to me describe the features they could see for themselves.

Kind of.

I had been battling a cold, complete with scratchy, hoarse throat during most of the break. I thought I'd kicked it, but then after having to actually talk to people, I regressed. My voice gave out on me, too. I had my audio enhancement on, which was pleasant when I forgot to cover it when I had to cough or clear my raspy throat.

Luckily, my students and I are pretty good at going with the flow. If everything were perfect, how much fun would my class be?